Previous work by others has disclosed the utility of far infrared CO.sub.2 lasers for medical and many other applications and the utility of short wavelength lasers for corneal ablation and other applications where UV/VUV photochemistry is helpful. Both the excitation of these lasers and the delivery of the radiation is, at best, difficult.
Excitation of CO.sub.2 is most easily accomplished by gas discharge. Compact rf discharge devices which operate in this manner have been produced. However, these discharges produce radiation beams that are usually delivered by bulky articulated arms containing complex mirror systems. These devices are generally large and their size alone renders them difficult to use. At short wavelengths excitation becomes even more difficult and requires short, intense pump pulses to excite excimer lasers.
Efficient rf pumping can reduce the size of modest power UV/VUV lasers, but coupling and delivery are still difficult problems. In both the IR and UV/VUV cases, the coupling of either far infrared into some form of delivery arm or fiber, or the coupling of short wavelength laser radiation into a fiber has heretofore been unacceptable.
There presently exists a need for a compact device which produces laser excitation by rf pumping and which further provides convenient propagation and delivery of the resulting laser radiation.